Trip to Cincinnati

We finally had our trip to Cincinnati to see what the Dr.'s could find. It was two extremely LONG days, April 14 & 15. Kirby did really well. The first day he couldn't eat after 5am or drink after 9am. The nurses spent hours trying to draw blood and get an IV in. After 2 hrs of poking, we saw the Dr., they took some bone marrow, and he had an ultrasound on his spleen & liver. At 4pm we finally gave him his sippy with pedialite in it and he was chugging!

That evening we went to eat with my cousin Tim and his girlfriend Merideth. It was a nice dinner and good change of scenery for us. I wish I could say we saw someone famous, but no such luck. Sorry Jeff, no Nick Lachey.

Tuesday we didn't have to be to the hospital until 11am. Got there and they started, again, trying to get more blood. It was a 2 day process since they needed so much. After that ordeal, we saw Dr. Kalfa. She and Dr. Harris are working together on Kirby's case to try and diagnose.

The two agree that he likely has either autoimmune hemolytic anemia or poikilocytosis (abnormally shaped RBC's). They believe that both cases will be treatable. Treatment may be difficult, but they think he can get better. Because of the way he responds to different things they need all the test results back to make a conclusive diagnosis. That will hopefully be in the next 3 weeks or sooner.

Many of you ask what it is you can do to help. There is one thing, and except for time, it's free. Donate blood. It really does save lives. I know most of you don't realize the impact it can have just as we did not until Kirby became ill. Someone out there who is O+ and who matches Kirby's antibodies is helping keep him alive.